1/31 Update: Tim Blair has an excellent set of jubilant, cynical, and cautiously optimistic reactions to the Iraq elections. Time magazine has a brief photo-essay on the Iraq election. And a helpful round-up of lead-up-to-the-election news at The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. (Via The Volokh Conspiracy.)
1/30 Philosopher Robert Mayhew’s new book: The Female in Aristotle’s Biology. And required reading for students of Aristotle’s politics is Fred Miller’s classic study, Nature, Justice, and Rights in Aristotle’s Politics.
1/28 Gregg Easterbrook of The Brookings Institute asks: Does it matter which college you go to – or that you go to college? And at 2 Blowhards:
What is a good college?
1/27 At the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Henry Miller explains why the FDA’s drug-approval process is dangerously cautious. And worth reading again is Steven Den Beste on how the Food and Drug Administration’s incentive to be overly cautious increases human death and suffering.
1/26 Two more great men, while I’m on my Renaissance Florence kick: The Wikipedia entry on Lorenzo the Magnificent, republican and patron of philosophers and artists; and Adam Gopnik’s review of two new books on Leonardo da Vinci.
1/25 Forester Charles Tomlinson’s charming, wise, and delightfully idiosyncratic collection of essays: A View from My Stump.
1/24 Socialist economist Robert Heilbroner has died at age 85. David Boaz reflects on Heilbroner’s intellectual honesty. And worth reading again is historian Alan Kors’s essay pointing out that Western leftist intellectuals are still avoiding the moral lesson of socialism’s disastrous history.
1/22 Joseph Haydn – the man and his music: Terry Teachout and Michael von Blowhard offer their appreciations.
1/21 The Federal Reserve Bank sponsors an essay contest for high school juniors and seniors: Why are some countries so rich while others are so poor? (Thanks to Michael M. at SOLO for the link.)
1/20 The first issue of the New York University Journal of Law & Liberty is devoted to the work of Friedrich Hayek. And in case you have not seen this all-important challenge to Friedrich’s significance: Salma Hayek versus Friedrich Hayek.
1/19 “The Aviator”: Ed Hudgins reviews Martin Scorsese’s film of Howard Hughes’s heroic-scale life.
1/18 Political scientist R. J. Rummel observes how the horrible events at Abu Ghraib were handled and identifies six signs of a healthy society. (Via Johan Norberg.)
1/17 Columnist Mark Steyn notes that when disaster strikes Muslim nations, the Great Satan helps out the most. And philosopher David Kelley has a new article on generosity and self interest.
1/15 Walter Donway reviews Paul Hollander’s Discontents: Postmodern & Postcommunist.
1/14 Artist Timothy Tyler’s new painting: The Deconstructionist.
1/13 At Space.com, the best images of 2004.
1/7 While it’s cold up here in the northland, warm up with philosopher Lester Hunt’s fascinating account of his travels in Batopilas, Satebó, and the Sierra Tarahumara.
1/6 The ever-clear-and-insightful Walter Williams explains why the United States is fundamentally a republic rather than fundamentally a democracy. And philosopher David Schmidtz is thinking about equality and meritocracy.
1/5 William Beaty’s fun and fact-filled corrections to common mistakes in K-6 science textbooks. Great pictures at the NASA/JPL site for the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan. And here is a fascinating range of responses – from thoughtful to wishful to bizarrely speculative – to a provocative question put to the world’s leading scientists: What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it? (Via Arts and Letters Daily.)
1/4 In The New Yorker, Ian Buruma reports on how Theo van Gogh’s murder has altered Dutch attitudes toward tolerance. (Via AndrewSullivan.com.)
1/3 Over-population or under-population? Philip Longman on the global baby bust. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.)
1/1 Shall we make a national New Year’s Resolution? The Cato Institute’s Will Wilkinson on competing proposals to tame the out-of-control budget deficit.